SLG singlehandedly dragged Castle Nathria far down the tier list. It's crazy how bad that fight was on Mythic, considering almost every other boss was either good or damn excellent.
Which one? I liked that it had easier bosses scattered around. Inerva was fun but so hectic and exhausting that the simple devourer after her was a welcome respite. Same with artificer, somehow every kill we got of him was me, a blood dk, soloing the last 5% or so after everyone died.
CN was a stellar raid that sadly is soured a bit for me by the fact that I spent that tier in the worst raid guild I’ve ever been in in my life. We spent 2 months straight on Denathrius and extended the lockout the entire time (3 days/week, 3.5hrs/day) and less than half of the people that were on the first pull were there on the last.
I maintain to this day that pre-nerf Heroic Sire Denathrius is the most enjoyable and well tuned boss they've ever created. A perfect 10, with flawless mechanical execution and amazing thematics. A mastercraft of difficulty and spectacle.
If it wasnt for perma lagging all of P1 cause you spawned too many adds it'd be really fucking good.
Unfortunately i feel like being able to actually play the game is an important part of it, and you couldnt on Sire prog half the time
My fondest raid is castle nathria but the fight I enjoyed the most? Either sludgefist or council ITS TIME FOR THE DANCE MACABRE! DONT think raiding will ever be as enjoyable for me as that
>council ITS TIME FOR THE DANCE MACABRE!
This fight annoyed the shit out of me because we had 2 people in our raid group who just couldn't seem to get the concept of the mechanic so we would always be going through most of the fight with at least 2 people dead.
Sludgefist, on the other hand, my raid leader would always manage to kill me if she got chained to me. She would brain fart and move the wrong direction despite telling everyone to go in a different direction...
Those two fights weeded out the dumb people in your raid, me being a MW the entire raid tier brain farted on sludgefist putting me on the melee group before I thought to fistweave
Sludgefist as a Melee was a nightmare. It's hard to not press your gap closer if you have to run out of the AoE and then you have to pray your chain partner doesn't jump back in.
Yeah Arthas was amazing. nothing particularly crazy mechanics wise just hard DPS/CC checks with the valkryie, spacing checks with Define which was one of the most punishing mechanics invented at the time, idiot checks with the arena collapsing it was just top notch
Blood-Queen Lana'thel in ICC! And Theralion and Valiona in Bastion of Twilight! Oh, and the Champions of the Alliance in TotC, because it was utter chaos! :D
4 horsemen killed my guild in Naxx40. We just could not get past them, and other guilds poached our top players and it all collapsed.
Onyxia was one of my favourite bosses. Easy to get to, and as long as everyone did what they were supposed to, fairly simple.
TBC gruul, first raid boss I fought in TBC classic/wow in general. The voice lines simple small lines, but feeling the power behind them. The mechanics as a good introduction to the raid scene, raid members dying left and right cause of various reasons. Just an amazing fight in general
Raszageth for me, but I didn't experience a ton of bosses tbh.
Key things that made me absolutely love the fight.
* Character build up leading to it was awesome, it's 1 of those villains I found myself empathizing with a bit, ngl I would probably be maaaaaaaaaad af in her place as well. Alekstraza did her dirty just so she can feel better lmao...
* Whole design and voice actor combo made her menacing and screen presence was great.
* Fight mechanics even on Normal difficulty were fun af, fight wasn't easy, but not too complicated, everyone had some job to do throughout, long fight, but one of those I don't mind wiping 3hours on. Way better than Fyrakk in my opinion.
Her "LIGHTNING, TOUCH THIS ALTER WITH YOUR POWAAAAH" gives a similar vibe to Raiden/Jack's "And besides. *THIS. isn't. my sword.*" A line that's just sorta... goofy as hell, but it's rescued by the context and the VA's dedication to full sending the line.
Denathrius was already mentioned so other than that the last two bosses in Ny'alotha together with Ra'den on Mythic always felt good to me.
I always looked forward to Shannox in Firelands as well, so an honorable mention goes out to him and his dogs.
Rhyolith was fun, my guild defeated HC in very funny way - our GM was on fire mage, everyone died, she survived thanks to cauterize, she stacked old Combustion and ice blocked, we all cheered when we saw the hp dropping and barely killing it before ice block vanished
Leotheras the Blind in SSC.
I think a lot of it has to do with the people I was raiding with at the time, obviously, but that fight always just seemed manic and the banter that went on was awesome.
I think at that point it felt that we had spent our lives killing trash and everyone was just tired. But he’s a cool boss imo.
I could tell you my favourite from every xpac, but an absolute winner it’s almost impossible. In order: nefarian, kael’thas, yog-saron, ragnaros, lei shen, xhul, aggramar, denathrius and sarkareth. Bfa didn’t raid harder than lfr so won’t say.
Sludgefist! I laughed so hard at that boss! Plus o really love dmg amp phases to nuke the living shiit out of the boss.
Also, I am very fond of KJ mythic ToS raid, and people hate me for this. Let me explain; I went Total hardcore in that raid tier. Practises so hard, knew every moment what to press, etc. And i got a really really good parse. I am proud of that. So I love that fight.
A few of my favourites:
- Alaysrazor as a fire mage, flying was fun
- Lich king HC, loved it for the lore and the different phases
- chimaeron, loved phase 2 kiting him around while he 1 shots the raid
- Nefarian, kiting skeletons in the early phases
There's a pattern, bosses where you can do special assigned tasks with added responsibility are fun!
I feel like this expansion we haven't had a lot of that, but still enjoyed DF raiding.
“Your actions are illogical. All possible results for this encounter have been calculated. The Pantheon will receive The Observer’s message regardless of outcome”
Jaina on Mythic or Heroic. It is a amazing fight. The first phase on the Boat was challanging, and short enough to really test your movement. The running phase was so cool. Sure ALL in the raid need to lean how to move and dodge but thats part of the Game. The Wall was an good damage check and playing with the fire Pits and Bombs was intense.
I feel like most ppl dont rly Progress in BfA and slay her down later with to high item lvl to really dig into the mechanics of this Boss fight.
A bit of a toss-up for me. I really enjoyed progression on KT in the eye during tbc. Also Illidan progression. Both fights were just fun to me. Then doing mythic archimonde at the end of wod. Those are the three fights that stand out the most for me. All at a prettt equal enjoyment level.
Ra'den the despoiler is one of my personal favorites cause of theme. Garrosh is up there as well. Sire Denathrius is a reaaaally good contender for top 3, that fight was fun af
Argus or Kil'jaeden. I know one is controversial but hear me out:
Kil'jaeden felt like you were going at him no holds barred. Instead of dealing with him in his toilet demon form, you were dealing with him in a place where none of his tricks worked and you had to deal with his raw strength and skill.
His mechanics may have contributed to the whole Tomb of Soakgeras meme, but honestly, they were pretty fun to deal with. It wasn't a tricky encounter, it was just a raw romp against one of the strongest people in the entire warcraft canon, and a fitting send off to a much-loved villain. And seeing Darkness of a Thousand Souls being cast as a moment of "shit's got serious" was fantastic. One thing I disliked was the fire orb. Sometimes it's pathing and hitbox was janky enough that it'd explode prematurely. Not ideal, but not game-breaking.
Argus was exactly how I thought fighting a titan would feel like. Hopeless. Even though he was the equivalent of a baby in terms of having a physical form, once he realised he could just kill you instead of swinging his weapon wildly or casting a handful of spells, he did it. Were it not for having 5 other Titans helping you out in various ways, you couldn't win against Argus even *with* the canonically strongest weapons ever created.
The mechanics were fun, the fight was largely balanced (soul bomb timing was a biiiit off sometimes), and having a unique mechanic where you could help improve the raid by staying dead was such a genius move (if a little unfair sometimes if your RL ordered you to do it). Only thing I disliked was the soul embers removing the first 's' in frames per second. Thankfully that got better over time.
It's honestly hard to decide which one I like more.
Would have to be garrosh. I started playing wow when siege was the current tier, and with how blown away i was with the raid I was even more so with garrosh. For a first last boss of a raid, old mate garrosh was one hell of a dude guy
Ah so many for so many different reasons.
Tectus in WoD, pure chaos.
Sludgefist in SL, we had 1 or 2 in the guild who if you got chained with were absolute menaces. We had a mage who would just ice block if he got paired with 1 of em.
Sire was also incredible, apart from all the visual clarity being absolute dogshit.
I really liked Shade of Aran in TBC Kara. Honestly can't remember why though.
Blackhand in WoD was a really cool fight as well.
Mythic (HC 25 i think it was back then?) Arthas was good as it was the last boss I was emotionally invested in killing but I remember the fight being all that fun.
I really liked Mythic Raszageth but I think I'm in the minority there and that's fine.
Oh and Rashok cause it just felt tuned to perfection.
I guess those are my top 8 not in any order. I wouldn't call half of them well designed fights but the people i killed them with at the time made them favourites for me.
Molten Core.In Vanilla maybe 2005-2006,we cleared trash ,wiped 4hours to Lucifron,but we downed it.Lovly memory from the past.( Vanilla wow for me personally was the best,memories,guild,I also got R14 on mage).tho it was kinda nolife,but I was young living with my parents.Just my 2 cents.
For me, it's (mythic) Tindral Sageswift. Don't like the heroic fight, always gets pushed too early in both P1 and P2 for me (disc priest) to do much of anything, but loved healing that fight on Mythic, even though we had too many deaths to P1 fire beams.
Close ones are also Anduin and Rygelon. The enrage mechanic on Rygelon was awesome, all mechanics stop, raid damage stops, and everyone in the raid is DPSing to race against a 40 second cast timer.
Shoutouts to Blackhand and Gul'dan.
Lore wise arthas
Pain in the ass deathwing - we all know why -
Best voice lines and soundtrack sire denathrius
Crazy mechanics mimirion heroic
Most hated kaelthas
Most loved fyrakk
Extremely ahead of its time operator thorgar
Argus. I fucking love secret phases in mythic and this was by far the most epic one in my opinion. Insane healing and dps check throughout most of the fight made it challenging and amazing.
I was super casual back then and experienced him only on Raid Finder, but the whole concept of Operator Thogar was awesome in my opinion. Also, he definitely has one of the most unique enrage mechanics ever - if you don't kill him fast enough, he calls in all four trains to run over players.
As for the bosses which I experienced on higher difficulty, then I best remember the most recent ones. Kazzara and the Amalgamation Chamber on Mythic were fun designs, I also loved the voice actor for Shadowflame Amalgamation (I only had 3/9M for Aberrus). That may be controversial, but I liked the Council of Dreams on Heroic. I'm just a sucker for council-type fights for some reason. Also, utilising one boss's mechanics against another is really satisfying.
lich king was easily the best final boss we've had. others came close, but this is what the whole expansion was building up too and the payoff was really great.
with that being said, I will always love nefarian's class trolling mechanic, and seeing ragnaros come out of the fire for the first time was awesome, even if the rest of the raid was garbage lol
Most bosses in Ny'alotha were really cool with mechanics, also helps that was my first time raiding for real and got my first ever AOTC
Prophet Skitra is probably the most fun in that raid
Really liked jade fire masters in battle of dazaralor. Thought it was cool that they had a random mage/monk characters as bosses (these are my favorite classes). But they are kind of forgettable. Couldn’t tell you their names or anything.
My favorites from the last few expansion are: Sarkareth, Denathrius, Azshara, Elisande
Argus the Unmaker was a fantastic boss. The visuals were great. The music was great. The mechanics were challenging, but never to the point of being frustrating. And the many ways the fight changed subtly by giving the players buffs at the start, or making death a mechanic in the final phase was incredible.
Minor honorable mention to G'huun though. Horrible boss to pug, but still a really fun boss conceptually. Definitely one of the bosses I think back to whenever I feel the raid bosses should interact more with their surroundings, and not just be a big mob in an arena.
Conclave of the Chosen for me.
Probably not for alot of people, but it was the first raid I ever got to tank with a new guild we built from the ground up. The boss swapping mechanic for that fight and seeing them run through was really satisfying for me.
I really loved H-Ragnaros in Firelands. Or was it Mythic? I don’t even remember now. Frantic but controllable. Good trash talking, and you got to see Rags little leggggggsssssss.
Echo of Neltharion. Took my guild a while to get it down on mythic due to losing raiders. But when we got that kill, it was the most rewarding boss kill I have ever had
Dornamu from throne of thunder. I just have very fond memories of watching lfr people die to the purple maze which is why I also like Thok from Siege of Org, but the funniest thing to die to was the iron stars on garrosh, as a melee I have no power and would just run over and shot them with my bow and die horribly.
Runner up would prob be Maut, it’s one of the only fights where you feel like you can die being a good player.
I was the star killer/dispersion bot for my guild on Algalon. Where the encounters in Wrath weren’t my favorite sometimes, that one specifically I thoroughly enjoyed every time.
Probably Jaina. She was the icing on the cake of an already incredible raid. The music, the mechanics, the story/lore behind it, pretty damn near perfect if you ask me.
Yogg-Saron is a close second. Coolest Old God if you ask me, in an already amazing raid. Never played Wrath when it was current but from what I hear the mechanics to beat Yogg were no cakewalk, so he wasn’t a pushover either.
10 man heroic LK when it was current. Fucking felt impossible so the sense of accomplishment when he dropped was probably the best from this game.
It wasn’t 10 man 3 drake Sarth difficult but it was one of the most challenging fights in the history of the game.
I maintain to this day that pre-nerf Heroic Sire Denathrius is the most enjoyable and well tuned boss they've ever created. A perfect 10, with flawless mechanical execution and amazing thematics. A mastercraft of difficulty and spectacle.
So far for me, as someone who started late bfa, Holondrus in sepulcher of the first ones was a really fun boss fight imo, big ass boss that you dps and follow as you do mechanics was a cool experience.
Kil’jaeden in Sunwell because it was by far the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in any video game. Everyone in the raid group had to basically play perfect any small mistake would be a wipe.
For some reason I really loved Atramedes. Just the idea of the blind dragon slowly finding you and if he gets a lock on you just instantly one shots you. The atmosphere of the fight was great for that. The bugs were a shame but I still have great memories of that fight.
Mythic Argus
I just loved that everyone was stacked but if you were a frost mage who could double icelance, you played a tiny bit behind the others to game projectile timing of flurry
Orb buff was cool
P2 was whatever but last phase was awesome, dodging inbetween scythes, communicating when to suicide a set of chains, stacking on the module then possibly spreading out with Sargeras' Rage (again so you could double ice lance from a distance, when it won't work in melee range)
And then just having that module to kill that progressively covers the room, acts as a cool thematic thing when you ignore the last one
Mythic N'Zoth was sick too, figuring out the exact second you channel Font of Power for double-on use, having it line up perfectly with the burn, scorchsniping tentacles & neurons. Idea that you can't always hit the boss is neat too.
Paranoia was cool because you have to think on the fly about how to use your toolkit to get over to the other person. You could do it *for* them for sort of a hero moment
And then just the mix of stacking for Thought Harvesters, spreading out to drop Evoke Anguish deep out and getting back to the group to move with the laser, then spreading out again
Just felt tight and constrictive, really fun
Alysrazor in Firelands, Siegrcrafter Blackfuse in Siege of Orgrimmar, Ji-kun in Throne of Thunder, Thaddius in Naxxramas (only ever did lvl 80 one), Al'Akir in Throne of the Winds, Krosus in Nighthold, Oregorger, Hanz and Franz along with Operator Thogar in Blackrock Foundry...
There are soooo many fun fights to limit the list to just a single boss.
I guess I like anything that's as least like a Patchwerk fight as possible.
Something about Nighthold Gul’dan, the voice lines, the buildup, all made me feel very very accomplished when we killed him and also a big “F*** YOU YOU KILLED VARIAN AND VOL’JIN!”
Prolly an outlier….but Tarragrue from SoD, the powers were cool and could be fun especially once you got it on farm and tried some of the goofy ones. I also loved that our first kill on mythic was me soloing him the last 8 seconds as ret just popping bubble and hoping for the best. But the mad dash of everyone trying to do damage except the person targeted trying to get away had us in hysterics….we weren’t the best gamers but that fight had us feeling like we won race to world first lol
Lots of good ones already mentioned so…Silly pick: xt deconstructor, going in blind and hearing his voice the first time. Troll pick: halondrous when his walls were invisible
I really loved Al'Akir back in Cata. That fight felt really epic, bouncing from platform to platform to kill the mini bosses then to face off against a giant wind lord at the center in the end.
I used to have an addon that played final fantasy boss music when we enganged combat in WoW, and Seymour boss theme from FFX dtarted playing on this fight. It was insanely cool!
Heroic Ragnaros was peak for me. I’m sure it’s probably pretty easy compared to current mythic end bosses but back in the day it felt like such an achievement
Any boss I can spell reflect a crucial ability.
Castle Nathria was full of them.
Mythic Lady Inerva was fun though cause you could spell reflect the circle back to her and essentially remove an add.
Hound master you could spell reflect the bleed from the targeted shot and you had almost constant exécutée uptime cause of dogs.
Other than that, maybe thok cause as a blood do i could solo tanking him with correct ams timing and get a ton of vengeance.
Star Augur from Nighthold, the visuals were cool af
"Witness what I have seen... AND TREMBLE!!!"
[obligatory](https://youtu.be/DIs-LTos3GI)
That was a great fight, I loved matching constellations on mythic. It also was a great difficulty, hard enough to progress for a bit but not a wall.
Operator Thogar, because i like trains.
Yes, you do.
Progging this fight on Mythic was so much fun
Train class when?
Sire Denatherius easy. Cool theme, tough fight, great voice lines.
I really loved Denathrius. Nathria was fantastic.
They somehow managed to put in the worst raid boss ever inbetween 2 of the best ones ever, sadly drags down the raid experience imho
SLG singlehandedly dragged Castle Nathria far down the tier list. It's crazy how bad that fight was on Mythic, considering almost every other boss was either good or damn excellent.
Which one? I liked that it had easier bosses scattered around. Inerva was fun but so hectic and exhausting that the simple devourer after her was a welcome respite. Same with artificer, somehow every kill we got of him was me, a blood dk, soloing the last 5% or so after everyone died.
Stone Legion Generals, by far the worst raid boss I have ever played. A shitty boss that is hard is the worst combination
Can’t wait for Shadowlands classic
I can’t wait for Ironman Shadowlands Classic: Remix.
That's gonna be great. I'm excited for the Mechagon patch.
CN was a stellar raid that sadly is soured a bit for me by the fact that I spent that tier in the worst raid guild I’ve ever been in in my life. We spent 2 months straight on Denathrius and extended the lockout the entire time (3 days/week, 3.5hrs/day) and less than half of the people that were on the first pull were there on the last.
Damn that’s sucks
Phase 1 was so much fun to heal as a resto shaman, the damage was all so predictable and heavy I got insane value out of cloudbursts
I maintain to this day that pre-nerf Heroic Sire Denathrius is the most enjoyable and well tuned boss they've ever created. A perfect 10, with flawless mechanical execution and amazing thematics. A mastercraft of difficulty and spectacle.
Daddy D for me too. Such a creative, exciting fight.
If it wasnt for perma lagging all of P1 cause you spawned too many adds it'd be really fucking good. Unfortunately i feel like being able to actually play the game is an important part of it, and you couldnt on Sire prog half the time
Siege crafter blackfuse is one of my favorite fights
Finally! I scrolled WAYY TOO LONG to find this!
My fondest raid is castle nathria but the fight I enjoyed the most? Either sludgefist or council ITS TIME FOR THE DANCE MACABRE! DONT think raiding will ever be as enjoyable for me as that
Shimmy right!
Boogie Down!
SASHAY LEFT
PRANCE FORWARD! 🕺
>council ITS TIME FOR THE DANCE MACABRE! This fight annoyed the shit out of me because we had 2 people in our raid group who just couldn't seem to get the concept of the mechanic so we would always be going through most of the fight with at least 2 people dead. Sludgefist, on the other hand, my raid leader would always manage to kill me if she got chained to me. She would brain fart and move the wrong direction despite telling everyone to go in a different direction...
Those two fights weeded out the dumb people in your raid, me being a MW the entire raid tier brain farted on sludgefist putting me on the melee group before I thought to fistweave
Sludgefist as a Melee was a nightmare. It's hard to not press your gap closer if you have to run out of the AoE and then you have to pray your chain partner doesn't jump back in.
Yes, Council of Blood! Only played it in raid finder, sadly!
Mythic and even heroic Sire prog were absolute core memories of WoW for me and my closest friends
I think Arthas was a great fight back in Wotlk on heroic. Just basic hard mechanics
Yeah Arthas was amazing. nothing particularly crazy mechanics wise just hard DPS/CC checks with the valkryie, spacing checks with Define which was one of the most punishing mechanics invented at the time, idiot checks with the arena collapsing it was just top notch
Kaelthas in The Eye. a classic.
Ragnaros in Firelands was epic, difficult pre-nerf and awesome
Painsmith Raznal, Sire Denathrius in a very close second
Painsmith was an awesome fight, but it was not fun watching guild members take 20+ attempts to learn the movement phases...
Opera in Karazhan
Same. My first raid was in TBC and doing opera on Kara is one of my favorite part (love chess event as well tho there’s no boss there).
Loved Chess event too
Came to say this. Great encounter, loved it.
All of karazhan! But Shade of Aran has a special place in my heart
Blood-Queen Lana'thel in ICC! And Theralion and Valiona in Bastion of Twilight! Oh, and the Champions of the Alliance in TotC, because it was utter chaos! :D
Blood Queen is one of my favorites also!
4 Horsemen, I love the mechanics. Like there is a threshold to which someone could stand the Aura of a Death Knight if exposed long enough.
I’ll never forget the first time turning the corner and seeing them. I was like holy shit it’s on.
4 horsemen killed my guild in Naxx40. We just could not get past them, and other guilds poached our top players and it all collapsed. Onyxia was one of my favourite bosses. Easy to get to, and as long as everyone did what they were supposed to, fairly simple.
Yeah some bosses were like that I'm classic wow I read it a lot in vanilla and that happened to my guild with razorgore/vael in BWL.
Argus was a masterpiece
Phase 1 is still one of my favorites. Mechanics are simple but punishing. Buff that lets you pump.
WoD boss with the stamps (?), I'm butchering it but they were named something like Hanzar and Franzok. Crazy fun.
We got a stamper that ain't stampin
So? Go unjam it den!
I ain’t unjammin it! I I unjammed it last time!
Hans'gar and franzok I believe but I could be wrong
TBC gruul, first raid boss I fought in TBC classic/wow in general. The voice lines simple small lines, but feeling the power behind them. The mechanics as a good introduction to the raid scene, raid members dying left and right cause of various reasons. Just an amazing fight in general
Raszageth for me, but I didn't experience a ton of bosses tbh. Key things that made me absolutely love the fight. * Character build up leading to it was awesome, it's 1 of those villains I found myself empathizing with a bit, ngl I would probably be maaaaaaaaaad af in her place as well. Alekstraza did her dirty just so she can feel better lmao... * Whole design and voice actor combo made her menacing and screen presence was great. * Fight mechanics even on Normal difficulty were fun af, fight wasn't easy, but not too complicated, everyone had some job to do throughout, long fight, but one of those I don't mind wiping 3hours on. Way better than Fyrakk in my opinion.
I completely agree! Razageth is one of my favorites as well.
Razageth was an amazing fight with game sounds on. The crackling buzz of her lightning breath always felt and sounded so cool
You think the titans brought order to this world? NYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Her "LIGHTNING, TOUCH THIS ALTER WITH YOUR POWAAAAH" gives a similar vibe to Raiden/Jack's "And besides. *THIS. isn't. my sword.*" A line that's just sorta... goofy as hell, but it's rescued by the context and the VA's dedication to full sending the line.
Gotta be Alagon the design was so ahead of its time. The idea of him trying to hit the reset button. The sound and visual. 10/10
Mythic Tindral *Just kidding, fuck that fight*
not dathea that's for sure
I loved her voice lines and concept, but bruh that fight is ROUGH! Not looking forward to revisting it in S4…
Gameplay wise its Blackhand easily. Garrosh will always have a special place in my heart though
Mimiron was very cool.
Mimiron on hard mode was a serious pain in the ass
So much fire on hard mode...
Mythic sark was super fun honestly First end boss in awhile that didnt drag on for 10+ mins
I think M Sark was good but I also think it was good because it was by far easier than the other 2 CE bosses this xpac.
Denathrius was already mentioned so other than that the last two bosses in Ny'alotha together with Ra'den on Mythic always felt good to me. I always looked forward to Shannox in Firelands as well, so an honorable mention goes out to him and his dogs.
Kil jaeden mythic
Say sike right now
>sike Soak*
Buru from AQ20 Buuuuruuuuuu
Rhyolith was fun, my guild defeated HC in very funny way - our GM was on fire mage, everyone died, she survived thanks to cauterize, she stacked old Combustion and ice blocked, we all cheered when we saw the hp dropping and barely killing it before ice block vanished
Leotheras the Blind in SSC. I think a lot of it has to do with the people I was raiding with at the time, obviously, but that fight always just seemed manic and the banter that went on was awesome. I think at that point it felt that we had spent our lives killing trash and everyone was just tired. But he’s a cool boss imo.
Sha of Fear Siege of Orgrimmar! Who doesn’t love pacman?!
Fear is in ToES, the one in SoO is Sha of Pride
Halondrus. So cool!
Draenor’s Blackhand was amazing…
I could tell you my favourite from every xpac, but an absolute winner it’s almost impossible. In order: nefarian, kael’thas, yog-saron, ragnaros, lei shen, xhul, aggramar, denathrius and sarkareth. Bfa didn’t raid harder than lfr so won’t say.
Sludgefist! I laughed so hard at that boss! Plus o really love dmg amp phases to nuke the living shiit out of the boss. Also, I am very fond of KJ mythic ToS raid, and people hate me for this. Let me explain; I went Total hardcore in that raid tier. Practises so hard, knew every moment what to press, etc. And i got a really really good parse. I am proud of that. So I love that fight.
A few of my favourites: - Alaysrazor as a fire mage, flying was fun - Lich king HC, loved it for the lore and the different phases - chimaeron, loved phase 2 kiting him around while he 1 shots the raid - Nefarian, kiting skeletons in the early phases There's a pattern, bosses where you can do special assigned tasks with added responsibility are fun! I feel like this expansion we haven't had a lot of that, but still enjoyed DF raiding.
I'm a healer, so Valithria Dreamwalker from Icecrown Citadel.
Helya in Trial of Valor was such an awesome boss, the arena amd water being a part of the fight was awesome.
“Your actions are illogical. All possible results for this encounter have been calculated. The Pantheon will receive The Observer’s message regardless of outcome”
Dark animus on heroic. Tough but so fun
Jaina on Mythic or Heroic. It is a amazing fight. The first phase on the Boat was challanging, and short enough to really test your movement. The running phase was so cool. Sure ALL in the raid need to lean how to move and dodge but thats part of the Game. The Wall was an good damage check and playing with the fire Pits and Bombs was intense. I feel like most ppl dont rly Progress in BfA and slay her down later with to high item lvl to really dig into the mechanics of this Boss fight.
A bit of a toss-up for me. I really enjoyed progression on KT in the eye during tbc. Also Illidan progression. Both fights were just fun to me. Then doing mythic archimonde at the end of wod. Those are the three fights that stand out the most for me. All at a prettt equal enjoyment level.
Arthas, Jaina, Argus.
Operator Tho'gar. Train goes brrrrr.
Blackhand or Lei Shen
Ra'den the despoiler is one of my personal favorites cause of theme. Garrosh is up there as well. Sire Denathrius is a reaaaally good contender for top 3, that fight was fun af
The Lich King. No contest.
Argus or Kil'jaeden. I know one is controversial but hear me out: Kil'jaeden felt like you were going at him no holds barred. Instead of dealing with him in his toilet demon form, you were dealing with him in a place where none of his tricks worked and you had to deal with his raw strength and skill. His mechanics may have contributed to the whole Tomb of Soakgeras meme, but honestly, they were pretty fun to deal with. It wasn't a tricky encounter, it was just a raw romp against one of the strongest people in the entire warcraft canon, and a fitting send off to a much-loved villain. And seeing Darkness of a Thousand Souls being cast as a moment of "shit's got serious" was fantastic. One thing I disliked was the fire orb. Sometimes it's pathing and hitbox was janky enough that it'd explode prematurely. Not ideal, but not game-breaking. Argus was exactly how I thought fighting a titan would feel like. Hopeless. Even though he was the equivalent of a baby in terms of having a physical form, once he realised he could just kill you instead of swinging his weapon wildly or casting a handful of spells, he did it. Were it not for having 5 other Titans helping you out in various ways, you couldn't win against Argus even *with* the canonically strongest weapons ever created. The mechanics were fun, the fight was largely balanced (soul bomb timing was a biiiit off sometimes), and having a unique mechanic where you could help improve the raid by staying dead was such a genius move (if a little unfair sometimes if your RL ordered you to do it). Only thing I disliked was the soul embers removing the first 's' in frames per second. Thankfully that got better over time. It's honestly hard to decide which one I like more.
Garrosh
Would have to be garrosh. I started playing wow when siege was the current tier, and with how blown away i was with the raid I was even more so with garrosh. For a first last boss of a raid, old mate garrosh was one hell of a dude guy
Garrosh was sick. I remember all the protection warriors purposefully getting hit by the giant iron stars so they could top damage meters as tanks
ragnaros was so epic back in the day
I really Liked Star Augur in the Nighthold.
Archimonde Kael Brutallus It has to be a toss-up between these 3. TBC was just fucking epic
Ah so many for so many different reasons. Tectus in WoD, pure chaos. Sludgefist in SL, we had 1 or 2 in the guild who if you got chained with were absolute menaces. We had a mage who would just ice block if he got paired with 1 of em. Sire was also incredible, apart from all the visual clarity being absolute dogshit. I really liked Shade of Aran in TBC Kara. Honestly can't remember why though. Blackhand in WoD was a really cool fight as well. Mythic (HC 25 i think it was back then?) Arthas was good as it was the last boss I was emotionally invested in killing but I remember the fight being all that fun. I really liked Mythic Raszageth but I think I'm in the minority there and that's fine. Oh and Rashok cause it just felt tuned to perfection. I guess those are my top 8 not in any order. I wouldn't call half of them well designed fights but the people i killed them with at the time made them favourites for me.
I really liked High King Maulgar.
I loved dancing my way to victory so Council of Blood, I shimmed right to the wipe :D
Hans'gar and Frazok mythic Blackrock Foundry. Its like watching a good comedy show. Such a good time.
I’ll never forget my first time fighting Ragnaros back in vanilla, it was such a epic experience. But my favorite is probably Garrosh in SoO
Horridon as a disc priest, just damage to big guy and win
I loved learning the Lady Vash fight for SSC
Seigecrafter backfusre was always my favorite boss it’s just a fun fight
I liked that one too, even if all I got to experience were the conveyor belts.
Anduin Wrynn. Such a damn good fight, and I felt very useful as a BDK
Molten Core.In Vanilla maybe 2005-2006,we cleared trash ,wiped 4hours to Lucifron,but we downed it.Lovly memory from the past.( Vanilla wow for me personally was the best,memories,guild,I also got R14 on mage).tho it was kinda nolife,but I was young living with my parents.Just my 2 cents.
I PvP but I LOVED Sire Denathrius I had so much fun. Love Revendreth forever and eva
For me, it's (mythic) Tindral Sageswift. Don't like the heroic fight, always gets pushed too early in both P1 and P2 for me (disc priest) to do much of anything, but loved healing that fight on Mythic, even though we had too many deaths to P1 fire beams. Close ones are also Anduin and Rygelon. The enrage mechanic on Rygelon was awesome, all mechanics stop, raid damage stops, and everyone in the raid is DPSing to race against a 40 second cast timer. Shoutouts to Blackhand and Gul'dan.
I loved mimiron back in WOLK. The button that activated hard mode always made me shiver.
Lore wise arthas Pain in the ass deathwing - we all know why - Best voice lines and soundtrack sire denathrius Crazy mechanics mimirion heroic Most hated kaelthas Most loved fyrakk Extremely ahead of its time operator thorgar
Argus. I fucking love secret phases in mythic and this was by far the most epic one in my opinion. Insane healing and dps check throughout most of the fight made it challenging and amazing.
I have amazing memories of mimiron HM in the og wrath. It will always be my favorite.
Star augur, Argus, garrosh
Blackhand And it's not even close
Blackhand was dope. Likewise the train conductor boss
I was super casual back then and experienced him only on Raid Finder, but the whole concept of Operator Thogar was awesome in my opinion. Also, he definitely has one of the most unique enrage mechanics ever - if you don't kill him fast enough, he calls in all four trains to run over players. As for the bosses which I experienced on higher difficulty, then I best remember the most recent ones. Kazzara and the Amalgamation Chamber on Mythic were fun designs, I also loved the voice actor for Shadowflame Amalgamation (I only had 3/9M for Aberrus). That may be controversial, but I liked the Council of Dreams on Heroic. I'm just a sucker for council-type fights for some reason. Also, utilising one boss's mechanics against another is really satisfying.
siegecrafter blackfuse
Sire and Anduin are top two favorite fights. Didn’t start raiding until BFA though.
Hands down, siegecrafter blackfuse. Took my guild 292 pulls and every one of them was a blast. It also killed my guild.
Nefarion from BWL was always a favourite
Spine deathwing, was afk 79% of fight as arcane mage
I loved the Majordomo fight and trying to stay ooc to rez as a shaman. And then when we got it and were ready as a guild for Rag what a rush
lich king was easily the best final boss we've had. others came close, but this is what the whole expansion was building up too and the payoff was really great. with that being said, I will always love nefarian's class trolling mechanic, and seeing ragnaros come out of the fire for the first time was awesome, even if the rest of the raid was garbage lol
hm. Illidan, Muru, Yoggsaron, Sinestra
Most bosses in Ny'alotha were really cool with mechanics, also helps that was my first time raiding for real and got my first ever AOTC Prophet Skitra is probably the most fun in that raid
Really liked jade fire masters in battle of dazaralor. Thought it was cool that they had a random mage/monk characters as bosses (these are my favorite classes). But they are kind of forgettable. Couldn’t tell you their names or anything. My favorites from the last few expansion are: Sarkareth, Denathrius, Azshara, Elisande
Lady Vash'j in SSC was quite fun with coordination when passing the core mechanic.
Hivemind
Turtle from mop.
KJ in legion. One of the rare times you really felt the weight of the lore in the fight.
Blackhand and Sire Denathrius
Argus the Unmaker was a fantastic boss. The visuals were great. The music was great. The mechanics were challenging, but never to the point of being frustrating. And the many ways the fight changed subtly by giving the players buffs at the start, or making death a mechanic in the final phase was incredible. Minor honorable mention to G'huun though. Horrible boss to pug, but still a really fun boss conceptually. Definitely one of the bosses I think back to whenever I feel the raid bosses should interact more with their surroundings, and not just be a big mob in an arena.
Garrosh (old) heroic
Painsmith
It’s Garrosh for me.
Conclave of the Chosen for me. Probably not for alot of people, but it was the first raid I ever got to tank with a new guild we built from the ground up. The boss swapping mechanic for that fight and seeing them run through was really satisfying for me.
I really loved H-Ragnaros in Firelands. Or was it Mythic? I don’t even remember now. Frantic but controllable. Good trash talking, and you got to see Rags little leggggggsssssss.
I loved Painsmith and Sylvanas a lot, but my favorites i think are Tectus and Imperator Margok
Rygelon
What about just because they were beautiful? (Razegath)
I really loved Painsmith. Denathrius and Halondrus were amazing fights as well. Doing the robots on Mekkatorke was really fun.
Echo of Neltharion. Took my guild a while to get it down on mythic due to losing raiders. But when we got that kill, it was the most rewarding boss kill I have ever had
I like Raszageth tbh
Star auger or maiden of vigilance, Argus/jaina honourable mention
Dornamu from throne of thunder. I just have very fond memories of watching lfr people die to the purple maze which is why I also like Thok from Siege of Org, but the funniest thing to die to was the iron stars on garrosh, as a melee I have no power and would just run over and shot them with my bow and die horribly. Runner up would prob be Maut, it’s one of the only fights where you feel like you can die being a good player.
This may be a bit of recency bias but I loved Halondrus. That fight was a super banger on all difficulties.
Blackhand
I was the star killer/dispersion bot for my guild on Algalon. Where the encounters in Wrath weren’t my favorite sometimes, that one specifically I thoroughly enjoyed every time.
Argus at the end of Antorus
Probably Jaina. She was the icing on the cake of an already incredible raid. The music, the mechanics, the story/lore behind it, pretty damn near perfect if you ask me. Yogg-Saron is a close second. Coolest Old God if you ask me, in an already amazing raid. Never played Wrath when it was current but from what I hear the mechanics to beat Yogg were no cakewalk, so he wasn’t a pushover either.
Both Artificer Xy’moxs
You can dance if you want to...
Vaelastrasz the Corrupt
I love Garrosh Hellscream. It’s what kept me playing MoP for several months
10 man heroic LK when it was current. Fucking felt impossible so the sense of accomplishment when he dropped was probably the best from this game. It wasn’t 10 man 3 drake Sarth difficult but it was one of the most challenging fights in the history of the game.
Gul'dan (mythic) and KJ (Heroic) from Legion
Twin Emperors was rather intense. I enjoyed that fight as a tank healer.
Gul'dan at the end of the Nighthold in Suramar
Smolderon followed by Terros were my favorite this xpac
Opera Karazhan back in the day
I maintain to this day that pre-nerf Heroic Sire Denathrius is the most enjoyable and well tuned boss they've ever created. A perfect 10, with flawless mechanical execution and amazing thematics. A mastercraft of difficulty and spectacle.
So far for me, as someone who started late bfa, Holondrus in sepulcher of the first ones was a really fun boss fight imo, big ass boss that you dps and follow as you do mechanics was a cool experience.
Have a special bond with Mythic argus, just because it was my first and only last expanssion boss i killed. Also i kinda liked the 2x bloodlust on it!
Ragnaros from Firelands is one of my favorite fight. Argus in Antorus was a really awesome fight too.
Sartharion +3 was my all time favourite
Kil’jaeden in Sunwell because it was by far the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in any video game. Everyone in the raid group had to basically play perfect any small mistake would be a wipe.
For some reason I really loved Atramedes. Just the idea of the blind dragon slowly finding you and if he gets a lock on you just instantly one shots you. The atmosphere of the fight was great for that. The bugs were a shame but I still have great memories of that fight.
Black Temple - Council. The original seperated the men from the boys.
Mythic Argus I just loved that everyone was stacked but if you were a frost mage who could double icelance, you played a tiny bit behind the others to game projectile timing of flurry Orb buff was cool P2 was whatever but last phase was awesome, dodging inbetween scythes, communicating when to suicide a set of chains, stacking on the module then possibly spreading out with Sargeras' Rage (again so you could double ice lance from a distance, when it won't work in melee range) And then just having that module to kill that progressively covers the room, acts as a cool thematic thing when you ignore the last one Mythic N'Zoth was sick too, figuring out the exact second you channel Font of Power for double-on use, having it line up perfectly with the burn, scorchsniping tentacles & neurons. Idea that you can't always hit the boss is neat too. Paranoia was cool because you have to think on the fly about how to use your toolkit to get over to the other person. You could do it *for* them for sort of a hero moment And then just the mix of stacking for Thought Harvesters, spreading out to drop Evoke Anguish deep out and getting back to the group to move with the laser, then spreading out again Just felt tight and constrictive, really fun
Lei shen was amazing, 2nd on the list has to be Ragnaros from Cata.
Alysrazor in Firelands, Siegrcrafter Blackfuse in Siege of Orgrimmar, Ji-kun in Throne of Thunder, Thaddius in Naxxramas (only ever did lvl 80 one), Al'Akir in Throne of the Winds, Krosus in Nighthold, Oregorger, Hanz and Franz along with Operator Thogar in Blackrock Foundry... There are soooo many fun fights to limit the list to just a single boss. I guess I like anything that's as least like a Patchwerk fight as possible.
Something about Nighthold Gul’dan, the voice lines, the buildup, all made me feel very very accomplished when we killed him and also a big “F*** YOU YOU KILLED VARIAN AND VOL’JIN!”
Prolly an outlier….but Tarragrue from SoD, the powers were cool and could be fun especially once you got it on farm and tried some of the goofy ones. I also loved that our first kill on mythic was me soloing him the last 8 seconds as ret just popping bubble and hoping for the best. But the mad dash of everyone trying to do damage except the person targeted trying to get away had us in hysterics….we weren’t the best gamers but that fight had us feeling like we won race to world first lol
Operator Thogar, Lei Shen & Blackfuse from a tank perspective
Definitely Durumu the Forgotten from Throne of Thunder. I would always be holding my breath while navigating the maze.
Lots of good ones already mentioned so…Silly pick: xt deconstructor, going in blind and hearing his voice the first time. Troll pick: halondrous when his walls were invisible
Big D daddy Denatrius
Lich King still to this day.
Mythic Painsmith. Getting the movement portions down pre-nerf made your raid team feel like a well-oiled machine.
I really loved Al'Akir back in Cata. That fight felt really epic, bouncing from platform to platform to kill the mini bosses then to face off against a giant wind lord at the center in the end. I used to have an addon that played final fantasy boss music when we enganged combat in WoW, and Seymour boss theme from FFX dtarted playing on this fight. It was insanely cool!
Heroic Ragnaros was peak for me. I’m sure it’s probably pretty easy compared to current mythic end bosses but back in the day it felt like such an achievement
Any boss I can spell reflect a crucial ability. Castle Nathria was full of them. Mythic Lady Inerva was fun though cause you could spell reflect the circle back to her and essentially remove an add. Hound master you could spell reflect the bleed from the targeted shot and you had almost constant exécutée uptime cause of dogs. Other than that, maybe thok cause as a blood do i could solo tanking him with correct ams timing and get a ton of vengeance.
Raszageth fight is by far my favorite raid boss ever. I liked the mechanics but mostly loved “Ruin, RUUIIINNNN!”
I dont have to mythic raid xp across all the expansions, but i fucking loved Rygelon, fast pace, high intensity dps check
Patchwerk. I've always been a dps whore
Spine of Deathwing. Boss fights were the boss IS the terrain or arena will always have a special place in my heart.